Legal Action Center Staff

Emily Creighton is a Staff Attorney at the Legal Action Center. She has represented plaintiffs and amicus curiae before the Board of Immigration Appeals and numerous federal courts and serves as counsel in national class action litigation. Ms. Creighton also contributes to practice advisories and administrative advocacy efforts on a variety of immigration-related topics. Ms. Creighton graduated cum laude from American University Washington College of Law in 2006.

Melissa Crowis the Director of the Legal Action Center, the litigation and legal advocacy arm of the American Immigration Council. Ms. Crow has practiced immigration law for more than twelve years, including litigation in the federal courts, immigration courts, and Board of Immigration Appeals. Prior to joining the LAC, she served as a Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of Policy at the Department of Homeland Security. She was previously a partner with Brown, Goldstein & Levy in Baltimore, Maryland, where she developed a thriving immigration practice and undertook litigation to protect immigrants' rights in the workplace. Before entering private practice, Ms. Crow served as Counsel to Senator Edward M. Kennedy during the 2007 debates on the U.S. Senate's comprehensive immigration reform bill. She also spent a year as the Gulf Coast Policy Attorney at the National Immigration Law Center. Ms. Crow has taught in the Safe Harbor Clinic at Brooklyn Law School and the International Human Rights Clinic at Washington College of Law. She holds a J.D. from New York University School of Law and a master’s degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

Leslie K. Dellon is the Business Litigation Fellow at the American Immigration Council. She has more than 20 years of experience advising small to multinational businesses about immigration strategies. In addition to her extensive business immigration law experience, she previously handled general commercial and corporate matters, including civil litigation. Since August 2011, she has represented clients in her own firm, L. Dellon Immigration Law, LLC. She also has experience as a Trial Attorney in the Federal Programs Branch, Civil Division, U.S. Department of Justice. She is a past Chair of the AILA Washington DC Chapter and has served on AILA National and DC Chapter Committees. She has a J.D. from the George Washington University Law School.

Kristin Macleod-Ball is a Legal Fellow with the American Immigration Council. Her work focuses on protecting the due process rights of individuals facing removal, including by seeking to ensure access to courts and access to counsel. Previously, Kristin worked at WITNESS, an organization that assisted locally-based non-profits around the world to produce and distribute human rights advocacy videos. She is a graduate of Bard College and Yale Law School.

Catalina Restrepo is the Legal Assistant at the Legal Action Center. As a student at Tufts University, Catalina studied abroad in Jordan where she participated in a language-intensive Arabic program. She also participated in a student-run sustainable development group on campus, focusing her research on Nicaragua. Between her junior and senior years Catalina served as an intern for KARAMAH in Rockville, MD. Catalina graduated magna cum laude from Tufts University with a B.A. in Arabic and International Relations.

Patrick Taurel is a Legal Fellow with the American Immigration Council. His current work focuses on the fair implementation of prosecutorial discretion programs including DACA and challenging abusive CBP practices through litigation and advocacy. He was previously the Council’s DACA Legal Services Fellow. Prior to joining the Council, Mr. Taurel was an associate attorney with Andrade Law Office in Boise, Idaho, where he represented noncitizens before USCIS, EOIR, federal courts, and U.S. consulates abroad. He graduated cum laude from Brooklyn Law School in 2010 and he received his B.A. in Philosophy from Brown University in 2004.

Administrative Relief Resource Center

Learn how individuals can prepare for administrative relief, find legal assistance and community education resource, and ways that you can help immigrants and immigrant-serving organizations.

Hold CBP Accountable

HoldCBPAcccountable.org documentsactions taken across the country in an ongoing effort to establish accountability and transparency of one of the fastest growing agencies in the United States.